1. Field of the Invention
This invention has to do with pointing and stabilization of telescopes, for example, in surface, airborne, and orbiting applications. More specifically, the invention relates to apparatus and systems for providing precise and stable orientation of a telescope, gun sight, navigational device, or other working head, in environments where undesirable, orientation-altering disturbances, as well as desirable orientation-altering impulses are transmitted to the working head through its base platform or support structure.
In a typical application requiring the present system, a large earth orbiting optical telescope is the stabilized element. Depending on the size of such a stabilized payload instrument, its articulation and stabilization demands may be beyond the scope of conventional approaches used for minimizing orientation-altering disturbances, such as concentric, servo-driven gimbals, and particularly so, when size or other design constraints make it difficult to locate the axes of rotation of the working head near its center of gravity. Without such colocation, acceleration of the support structure may result in orientation-altering disturbances in conventional systems of pointing and stabilization. While, theoretically, such problems can be ameliorated by scaling conventional approaches upward, where extremely accurate pointing and stabilization are required, undesirable levels of design complexity arise, with their attendant problems of component reliability and increased power consumption. These considerations militate against upward scaling of conventional gimbal systems. In addition, increases in hardware design complexity commonly necessitate like increases in complexity of the software to support the hardware.
It is accordingly, a major objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus and system for the improved pointing and stabilization of a working head, such as an orbiting telescope, typically in an earth orbiting spacecraft application. A further objective is to provide an improved pointing and stabilization apparatus embodying a design less complex than scaled conventional systems and which requires only more easily realized standards of component performance, and thereby, affords increased system reliability and reduced power consumption.
It is a specific objective of this invention to provide an apparatus for controlling the spatial orientation of an angularly displaceable working head supported by a base and relative to a given frame of reference, and particularly by application of torque between the head, or base, and a connecting linkage therebetween, in stabilization relation against unwanted response to orientation-altering disturbances, and in directional relation to reorient the working head to a precise prescribed position relative to the frame of reference.